Red-sided garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) are small nonvenomous colubrid snakes, a northeastern subspecies of a taxon (the common garter snake) that is widely distributed through North America.

Among the more than 2,500 living species of snakes, mandibular transport mechanisms are known elsewhere only in a small number of cochleophagous (snail-eating) colubrids of the subfamilies Dipsadinae and Pareatinae.

It is usually assumed that albinism would be detrimental for a wild snake, but documented instances of albinism in natricines, and other colubrids, make this unclear.